The Portland daily press., 1887-07-18

the housemaids of this ant-people. Sir John
Lubbock has completely proved that ants
possess faculties greater than any thus indi-
Gated. What man lives who could ever come
sightP Yet these little folks Of the darkness
know every citizen OF their tribe, though
there be five hundred thousand of them
Place an ant Of the city at one Of its gates, in
little cage protected by fine net. Every
townsman coming forth goes up TO the cage
and waves his antenn@-but he is satisfied,
it is friend. He quits the spot to go on
with his own business. But put a strange
ant in the same receptacle, and, in a trice,
the first inhabitant emerging detects an in
enemy, aud must be killed. A crowd Of
angry citizens gather at the cage. and the
victim is soon dragged forth and despatched.
1t is not by scent that they thus recognize
each other, for Sir John has impregDated
ants OF different tribes with the same
odor, and the little people were not
in the least deceived. 1t can not be
by marks. for he has painted different
ants Of one color and has not succeeded in
misleading his colonists. There is some gift
ually extending to the discrimination of the
eggs and pup@ of their own and of stranger
communities. The pains taken by the in
dustrlous populations to feed the winged
males and females, to keep the latter at
home in the breeding time, and to search for
them il any escape; their ingenious works of
engineering and architecture; their evident
power of mutual communication; their
wars, their frugality, their ceaseless indus
try and social joys may all be thus studied
under the glass roof of their artificial abode,
and all combine to fill the mind of the OBJ
server with astonishment and admiration.
Consider, in truth, what functions and fac
ulties must be packed away in that little
brown triangular pin-end which makes the
head Of an ant We're 1t not so the celebral
force of man ought to be 10000 times
greater than ii is to bear any proportion to
the intellect Of these infinitesimal beings.
For surely 1t is intellectual to cherish an al
most ferocious patriotism; to f0resee the fu-
ture and provide for IT.; to discriminate at
sight between friend and an enemy; to
train wood-lice as parlor maids, and aphides
as milch kline. Sir John has shown, even as
regards wasps and bees, that the former
learn to recognize a human acquaintance,
and that the latter have distinct preferences
paper diversely tinted, and then
counted the visits paid to each tint by the
bees, with the most decided results.
Those who heard his lecture, and have
perused his admirable work on ANTS, Wasps
and Bees" will be certainly inclined to his
opinion, which Is that we cannot put aside
these marvellous habits of the insect world,
and especially the formican species, with
the easy Wort instinct" Are they, then,
truly, peoples and are their small souls
growing up-as .3uddhists belieye-to be-
come some day real human citizenss In that
case, it is a strange refieS-4- that single
coppice in the summer time contains more
of them than there exist men and women in
the whole globe. Then to think of the
countless billions Of these busy little brains
in the white ant swarms of India, and the
hordes of Amazonian and African species
If all their eggs came to maturity the earth
would be oveirun and conquered by them,
just as the sea would be choked if every her.
rings spawn grew to be fishes. Neverthe-
"a people dear to Allah" and that once.
when Gabriel was sent to warn King Sol
omon Of sin, the archangel was command
ed to stop on his way to help an ant which
had fallen into puddle of rainwater.